You'll Be Standing in the Sunshine
by howlsatthemoon
Summary: But I must admit, Teddy Lupin can be a bit of an idiot. / The one where Lily kisses someone else.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the totally amazing band, Train._

So today was Super Hero Day at school. Everyone wore superman capes and batman shirts. I wore my Gryffindor scarf (it feels so weird to wear. I bought a Slytherin scarf on eBay though) and my Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince t-shirt. Love.

This one's got a sad ending, just saying.

-;-

_you'll be standing in the sunshine_

_"_Hey baby, I don't wanna be your superman,  
I just wanna be your man,  
and I'll be super, baby;  
You'll be standing in the sunshine,  
I'll be standing right here in the rain;  
You save me, and I will save the day."  
(Train.)

"I'll kick his ass, Lily," he growls, fists clenched, all macho-macho-man-like. His hair's erupted into flaming red and ash black, but his eyes are a bright green, like a certain monster. "'M not kidding. I really will. I'll kill him for doing this to you."

Lily rolls her eyes and brushes away a stray tear, clutching Teddy's arm and pulling it down into her lap, stroking his hand. "Shut up, nitwit," she warns gently. "'Sokay. Really. I'm okay, I swear." He looks at her with wide green eyes, running his free hand through his colored hair. "Teddy, come _on_. I'm nineteen. I think I can handle a breakup." She looks away, the sadness cleared from her voice but melancholy evident on her worn, young face. "I just really didn't expect this." She turns to face the boy she's known all her life; the boy who's known her better than anybody else. "Did you?"

Teddy's cheeks turn pink as he avoids Lily's bitter gaze. "Well… he's a twat," he reasons anticlimactically. "You were always too good for him," he says in a diminutive voice, squeezing her hand, small underneath his broad fingers.

She grins slowly, color rushing back to her face as she leans her head against his wiry shoulder. "Thanks, Teddy," Lily murmurs into the cloth of his dark red robes. "You always know how to make me feel better."

"Oi, lovebirds," Albus calls from across the room as he plays with an old, beat-up Quaffle, levitating it with his wand. Lily rolls her eyes again and laughs loudly, but Teddy blushes lobster red and sends him the Evil Eye. "I'm really bored, you guys. Can we, I dunno, stop the mushy-mushy, let's-share-our-feelings talk and play a nice, dirty, rough-and-tumble game of Quidditch?" He sends a toothy smile towards his little sister, who has stretched out her feet and placed her head upon Teddy's lap. Absentmindedly, Teddy begins to stroke her hair without realizing. "C'mon, Lils, you can play Beater and take your anger out on James or Lou." He pitches the Quaffle at her and she catches it without even looking.

Lily flings it back at him effortlessly, and Teddy stares at her as she chats with Albus obliviously. "Oh, come on, Al, I'm sad. I want to stay inside with my two favorite boys in the world." She smirks at her brother and her best friend. "If you want, we can talk about you and your little crush on Mary-Alice Longbottom." The girl laughs when her brother frowns and looks away.

"Fine, just shut up," he grumbles as he goes back to playing with his Quaffle.

In turn, Lily looks up and catches Teddy's eye. "It's just, I really thought me and Lysander were forever," she continues. "We've been together since seventh year, and it's so weird to be without him. I don't even know if I still love him. It's just, I miss him, I really do." She lets out a long, wistful sigh. "Is that how you felt when you first broke up with Victoire way back then?"

Teddy scratches his head, not quite sure how to answer that question. His recollection of the night he broke up with Victoire was foggy. Probably due to the fact that she'd flung several plates, heavy textbooks, and chairs at him with a well-placed Wingardium Leviosa spell. The girl had very nice aim for someone who never lifts a perfectly-manicured finger. "Erm, not exactly. Me and Victoire weren't happy for a while and I didn't really miss her. Ending it was mutual." Inwardly, he winces as her remembers the way she'd screamed some nice choice swear words at him. "More or less." He smiles.

Lily shifts her position, staring up at him with the strangest expression on her face, the most hopeless thoughts in her mind. Wondering. "Teddy," she breathes, "if you don't mind my asking, why _did _you break up with Victoire?" The firmness, the concentration in her gaze makes his breathing quicken.

He avoids her burning stare like it was the plague. "I—I liked someone else," he confesses, staring at the pillow he'd given her years ago, propped up on top of her bed like the main attraction now. "I couldn't lead Vic on. I didn't think she deserved it, me being in love with someone else and just leading her on." He swallows, the temperature in the room seeming to have gone up and his forehead breaks out in a cold sweat. _Pleasedon'taskwhopleasedon'taskwho_.

On the other side of the room, perceptive and observant Albus is frozen in his seat, still facing the wall. His ears are straining to hear their quiet conversation. "Who?" Lily wonders aloud, watching the stubble on his chin, the way his red and black hair is slowly turning into a deep, bruise-like purple.

"No one," Teddy murmurs, more to himself than Lily. "'Snot important. She doesn't feel the same way, anyway."

Albus coughs, rolling his eyes. He begins to open his mouth to argue with Teddy's moronic answer, but suddenly, the door bursts open, a red-faced Roxanne Weasley in the doorway, grinning widely. "Lily, you'll never guess who's at the front door!" she shrieks, her voice high-pitched and melodic.

Lily sits up abruptly; Teddy squirms at the loss of her warm contact. "Who?" Lily repeats, green eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Jesus, it's not—"

Roxanne laughs happily and leaps across the room like a ballerina, hugging her cousin in her thin arms. "It is, it is!" she sings. Teddy feels his heart slowly sink to his stomach; he swears that the Earth has stopped orbiting the sun at that very moment. "It's Scamander, can you believe it? I hear a knock on the door and Lou and I answer it and it's Lysander, demanding to see you and beg you to be his once again! He said he's made a terrible mistake, Lily, he's so determined! You _have_ to take him back!" And then she turns her head slightly to the side and spots Teddy sitting on the bed, looking queasy and defeated. "Oh, hi, Teddy," she adds in a bit of a gentler voice, her face suddenly contorting into one revealing guilt and pity.

"Rox," Teddy acknowledges. He finds himself staring at the blank, white walls of Lily's bedroom. "Go on, then, Lils," he chokes, finding it hard to breathe. "Can't keep Scamander waiting, now, right?"

Lily looks at him sadly, biting her lip until she feels as though she cannot stand it. "Yeah," she whispers back, unable to accomplish anything louder than that. "I think I will."

And she leaves the room, Roxanne giggling giddily at her heels. To Teddy, it feels as though all the warmth, the happiness, the meaning in the room has suddenly disappeared and everything is as cold as ice, as painful as the Cruciatus Curse. It feels as though a dementor has swept through the area. A dementor named Lysander Scamander.

Al, who'd been watching in his chair the whole time, stands up and sits next to Teddy, a hand buried in his own hair. "Ted, you're one of my best mates, man, don't get me wrong," he starts, letting out a long sigh. "But you're the biggest _dunce_ I've ever met."

Closing his eyes, Teddy moans. "What've I done?" he whimpers. "I thought—I was going to tell her—I couldn't go through with it, Al, I really couldn't."

"Hey, hey." Albus pats his god-brother's shoulder awkwardly. "'Sokay, Teddy, it's okay. I know for a damned _fact_ that Lily has been just as in love with you as you were her since she was about five years old." He smiles comfortingly and watches as Teddy's wounded black hair morphs into a hopeful navy blue. "You'll get her. You wait. You get her."

Teddy stands on his knees on Lily's mattress, placing a palm against the cool window, watching as Lysander wraps an arm tightly around Lily on the front lawn, and they Apparate together. "I just want her to be happy, even if it's not with me," he admits.

"She won't be happy _unles_s she's with you," Albus says.

Running a hand through his dark hair, Teddy slumps against the wall, burying his face into Lily's soap-smelling pillows, knowing that whether she be with him or another man, whether it be sunshine or pouring rain, he would always love her.


End file.
